i think of it this way...what did the truck come with that i dont need or will ruin in the course of my adventures, that i can replace (front bumper, fenders, bedsides), recombine (rear bumper and receiver), remove (rear seat), or reduce (front bumper, a lot) in favor of a lighter, more appropriate or durable solution?
the reaper has an excellent point when it comes to tools. dont take anything to repair something you dont know how to fix, or cant fix on the trail--unit bearings and timing belts come to mind--suck it up and get a strap or a towing service. a busted timing belt on an interference engine in the middle of nowhere cant be reasonably fixed in place anyway, and if you arent carrying spare ball joints, dont bother lugging around a floor jack, jack stands, jawed pullers and other items. better to stick with the cardinal rule of backcounty travel, never ever go alone (ie at least two vehicles). there is also a lot of weight to be saved taking only the tools you need...i used to lug around a complete sae/metric metal toolbox, i've pared it down to a 1/2" drive metric (i have a toyota) socket set 9-19mm, a couple extensions plus a breaker bar, cheater bar, and torque wrench, and a few sockets for the few sae bolts i've added. other good things are spare bolts, washers and lock washers for skid plates and other things that get beat...all that stuff is way better than carrying three dozen sae sockets when your truck is all metric. other than that, it's just a few pliers, wrenches, cutters, ratchet wrenches in the most common sizes on the truck, small handy stuff, and a couple SSTs like snap ring pliers, 2-jaw puller and a big c-clamp, and everything fits in a small ammo case. i think it weighs less than a quarter what i used to lug around...and dont be shy about leaving tool caddies and such at home, if theyre all metal...just find a way to organize better and ditch the weight.
i like to think of it as a pound of metal dropped that i didnt need is a pound of steak and beer i can bring instead, or a pound of toys it would be fun to bring, like scott's yak and bike on the expo trailer. paring it down gave me room to put two mtbs in the bed along with all the trail gear, and i've really only started with the layout this year...it used to be "throw and go".
i dig the idea of bridging ladders used for other things. the bedside idea sounds like it could work well, and theyd be very easy to access when you needed them. as the floor of a roof rack, what if you had stuff on the roof rack and needed the ladders? might be awkward, depends on how you built it...or it might work great, i dunno. when i ordered my ladders, i had them sized to fit perfectly across the rear of the bed, right behind the tailgate. i think what i'll eventually do is have them coated with rhino or linex for "permanent" durability, then build a lightweight tube frame to hold them and replace the tailgate, and decide later if i want to skin one side or the other. a couple small gas tubes would make the gate easier to drop and raise, so it can be sat upon, and the ladders would be easy to remove and stow...doing it vertical right now is a pain, they actually sit inside of a ridge at the tailgate and have to be lifted and rotated to be stowed. something like that, or your bedside idea, is great for dropping weight...the weight i could drop is essentially the tailgate minus the weight of the tube frame, and if i choose tube wisely i'll probably drop a good 30-40# of _cantilevered_ weight.
i saw a great spare tire carrier setup on pirate a while back. the bed had been caged and re-floored, and the fullsize (LARGE) tire was stowed similar to the stock location, just shifted around a bit to accomodate the new setup. the license plate and running lights were mounted on a tube assembly similar to a tailgate, so if you needed the tire, you just open the hatch and pull it out from the back, without having to grub under the truck or move your cooler that's sitting on the new floor above the spare tire. i thought it was a great way to use the available space, make changing the tire potentially more convenient, and keep the cg low. i'm hoping to do something similar, since the bed is just generally a bad place to keep the spare and my spare hasnt a prayer in the stock location...in the bed it's taking up space where i could spot a cooler or something.
youd be surprised how much all that carpet weighs. a buddy of mine herculined the tub of his jeep, now he cleans it with a hose...if you have a hollow body channel at the doorsill it might not work, or you might need a workaround like a section of aluminum and a gasket, but a yota could be done the same way, i think with minimal hassle...my door sills are plastic snap-ins with long screws to spread the ends of the snap-in sections. sure, carpet weighs maybe 30#, all the herculiner might weigh 10#, but it would shave another 20# of something that's a pain if it floods or even after a day of sand, and trade it for something durable and easy to clean. herculiner is great stuff and easy to apply. i wouldn't strip the roof, for a number of reasons...as a matter of fact, since the liner is lightweight, roof and doors are a good place to move the carpet liner, or even add more. the truck will be better insulated from temperature and noise. ive been in a tundra with an excess of damping material, it's like a library in there...anyway i dont think he did the floor, just the doors, roof and back of the cab.
wood is friggin heavy, particularly particle board and similar creations, only gets worse when it gets wet, and some of the cheap stuff just dissolves when it's soaked. it's great if you dont have another option, but if you can use wood, you can also use plastic or aluminum and it'll be weatherproof, stronger and lighter. gotta have the tools, skills and money tho, which is probably why a lot of people use wood for shelving and storage boxes.
been pondering this long time, i have :sombrero:. the downside is all this thought on the truck has resulted in a rather spartan campsite...
-sean
